


Going Places

by e_cat



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: I still doubt I could believe them about myself but... it's okay, I wrote it in literally one day, I'm not sure if Adam counts as a character here... he's kind asleep the whole time, M/M, also I probably should have written something like this months ago, it was a little bit cathardic to say all these wonderful things about Adam, this is probably a bit of a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 10:46:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11919273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_cat/pseuds/e_cat
Summary: Ronan is really bored on an airplane.





	Going Places

**Author's Note:**

  * For [klainederful](https://archiveofourown.org/users/klainederful/gifts).



> Sort of for my wonderful friend whose birthday is today! (Happy birthday!! <3)
> 
> But also, this is kind of a mess, has nothing to do with birthdays, and I don't know what point I was trying to make with it. Yay!

Adam was the sort of person who could fall asleep practically anywhere. This was something Ronan was very familiar with after so many times waking Adam at his desk; after having to search all the barns for his napping spot at dinner time; after two or three movie theater experiences with Adam’s head on his shoulder, having lost the battle to make the ticket worth the price; after that one time Adam had nearly set the kitchen on fire because he’d fallen asleep at the counter. Adam wasn’t on permanent sleep deficit anymore – at least, no more than any other college senior – but he still usually slept through any drive longer than half an hour. Ronan had not realized that that was going to translate to airplanes.

It was only about forty-five minutes into this flight, and Adam was sound asleep, and Ronan was running out of things to distract himself with. The thing was, they’d never spoken about flying before. It hadn’t seemed worth it, because Adam had probably assumed that Ronan had been on a lot of airplanes to a lot of enviable vacations before, and Adam had had neither experience. And Ronan hadn’t known how to say that he’d never wanted to be anywhere besides the Barns, because Adam hadn’t had that experience, either. Family vacation time had been greedily swallowed up by his father’s trips, and none of them had ever wanted to invite Niall away from home once they’d had him there. There had been backyard tents and day trips, but home had given Ronan everything, and the first thing he’d had to look elsewhere for was Adam. He’d never been on a plane before.

The seatbelt sign was on, and it was almost more than Ronan could handle. He tugged at the tight gray strap, flipped the loose end back and forth between his fingers. The seatbelt sign was still on.

On the tray table were the remains of the little packet of pretzels the flight attendant had handed out earlier. Ronan had torn the plastic to shreds once he was done with the food. Adam’s pretzels, uneaten because Adam had been asleep already, had been tucked into the seatback pocket. Ronan considered throwing them at someone, just for something to do. He thought about turning his plastic shreds into confetti, also. It might make the flight attendants hate him, but he was pretty sure you couldn’t be kicked off a plane mid-flight.

There really just was nothing to do on a plane. There was a little screen with some dumb show playing two rows up, but Ronan couldn’t be bothered with watching it. He’d already flipped through the music channels they offered about ten times, and there wasn’t anything sufficiently suited to his mood or personality (which Adam would call “shitty,” but that was beside the point).

He would go for his own music, but he refused to do it the indignity of being played through the cheap airplane headphones. His own were stowed despicably well in his carry-on above them, and he didn’t think that anyone would be interested in listening to his music on his phone’s speakers, even if Ronan personally thought it would enrich their lives. Also, there was a slim chance that it would wake Adam up.

The seatbelt sign was still on. There was some turbulence from what Ronan thought were some pretty awesome clouds. It seemed to be making the man in the next row up a little nervous, but Ronan had seen worse in his own head. The true torture here was being stuck in this seat.

Impatiently, Ronan maneuvered Adam’s phone out of the bag at his feet. Over the past several years, he’d learned to tolerate phones out of necessity, and now, as much as he hated it, he would have liked nothing better than to call Opal and have a long conversation about sticks. Just as something to do. But apparently the TSA couldn’t handle people on airplanes using their cell phones. Ronan made a mental note to try to convince Gansey that it was because the plane had to travel through a magical rift or something. That was the sort of strange, everyday-magic thing that Gansey might buy.

So, instead of having something actually useful to do, like reminding Opal to feed the animals, or reminding Blue to remind Opal to feed the animals, Ronan was forced to use the phone for the same mindless distraction that every other discontented human being used it for. Of course, it being Adam’s phone, it was a slightly different mindless distraction than it would have been otherwise. Ronan’s own phone was lost somewhere in his carry on or on the kitchen counter or something, but he probably wouldn’t have taken it out anyways. With Adam’s phone, Ronan had something to do.

Well, specifically, Ronan could read the email again. One more time. Just one more. He knew that Adam had no clue how many times Ronan had snuck his phone away to read it over. Every time, it still made his chest tight with pride.

_Dear Mr. Parrish,_ it began, _It gives me great pleasure to inform you…_ Damn. Ronan really needed to print this thing out. He should probably have it framed. He should make a hundred copies and put one on every wall of the house.

The first night, Ronan had made Adam read it out loud to him over the phone. “This is why you need an email address, Ronan,” Adam had said. “I could just forward it to you.” But it had been so, so clear that he’d needed to hear it out loud, too. His voice had been shaking as he’d read the part about the stipend.

“I’ll get an email address when I have more than ten customers a week,” Ronan had replied. But he’d starting thinking that he might get one just for this, just so he could hold this beautiful letter in his pocket. Adam Parrish had been incredible for a long time – longer than Ronan had known him, certainly – but finally, there was this recognition. There were graduate schools admitting him, Adam Parrish, of the 4.0 GPA; of the excellent personal statements; of the incredible research experience. And not just _admitting_ him, but giving him stipends – actual, livable stipends. Offering him reimbursement for visits. Telling him how impressed they were by his application. Finally, finally, the rest of the world was starting to see a fraction of what Ronan saw when he looked at Adam. Infinity. Magic. Everything in the goddamn world that anyone could ever, ever want.

And people were seeing it. Finally, finally. They knew how amazing it would be to have Adam Parrish in their worlds, and it was so, so good that they did. Because maybe Adam could start to see how lucky people were to know him. Maybe he would realize that these graduate schools were going to be so, so lucky just cross paths with him. Adam Parrish was _going places_. And Ronan was so proud to be going places with him.


End file.
